Today was a tiring day for mom and me. I've been peeing outside the litter box (NOT spraying, marking, etc) since late last week. She remembered what Jackson Galaxy of My Cat from Hell said about taking us kitties to the vet when we do that. I didn't have a blockage or stones but there are crystals in my urine. I had to stay at the vet until I produced a sample about 3:30 this afternoon and was taken in at 9:30 this morning so that took a while. We brought home Hills Science Diet urinary s/d food to help dissolve the crystals and prevent me from getting worse. Mom & her aunt came to get me a little after 4:30 since she'd just had her own appointment.

Mom also had a health scare of her own to deal with. During her check up last week her doctor noticed changes on a big mole near her belly button so while I was at the vet she was at the dr getting a biopsy on that. She vows never to tan or get too much sun exposure ever again. She had a bad sun burn by the time she was 10 yrs old. She has a page of after care instructions and took a strong tylenol for the night since the doc gave her 2 of those. She has a couple stitches covered with a band aid and is a little tender but otherwise ok. She goes back next week for stitch removal and the results will probably be ready by then. Her aunt came with when she picked me up from the vet so she wouldn't hurt herself. It was refreshing for both of us to ride in a car instead of the bus.

It will take a few days for us to feel better, but we're home & recovering together.

The long dark & cold nights are getting to mom and me. It's just now getting back above 0 in Minnesota after a few days of extreme bitter cold. Mom is relieved it will stay double digits above 0, better for running errands & taking out the trash & litter genie.

I'm already bored of almost everything I got for Christmas except for a red tulle ball. Its similar to a crinkle ball.

My new large cat ThunderShirt arrived today. With 30% off and the free shipping it was a fantastic deal that was definitely needed! The restraint collar is a great idea for the vet.

I'm wearing the new Thundershirt all afternoon while noisy work continues at the apartment. We'll be very glad when they're done with that. If it gets too loud mom is going to put ear plugs in her ears.

My other Thundershirt was medium sized for 9 - 12 lbs and that doesn't fit me so well anymore.

Lucky for us the weather is still unusually mild for MN right now. Sometimes mom can't get a ride to a store when she needs it most so will work on pre-planning with stocking up for the winter to come.

There was no Fancy Feast on hand this morning so about an hour ago she took off, walked to the bank to deposit a check and continued to the store to get me a couple cans of tuna flavored Fancy Feast (droolzzzzz) and a couple other things. She's going out again with a driver in a little while so plans to get me a pack of it until she can get to Wal-mart a couple days before Thanksgiving after her dental check up.

A few weeks ago she even ran out of her beloved Coke Zero and had to go to a nearby gas station on foot for a couple bottles of it. She plans to address this need for shopping to stock up for winter weather at the obligated meeting next week.

Our apartment is decorated with pumpkins, spiders & webs and black cats (besides me). Since our building is locked mom knows that only her nephew will be haunting us for candy. He will be 2 years old soon so she bought him a regular sized Hershey bar (keeping it away from me of course).

She's going to wear a headband with animal ears while he's here so he won't be too scared. Since she won't have to give away candy all evening she'll change & head to the costume party in her screaming neon 80's colors she wore to the Taylor Swift show, complete with neon purse with Care Bear & My Little Pony plush clips.

The first weekend of October my "sister" (daughter of former humom) dropped by and visited me.

Tomorrow I turn 5 years old! I'll be holding down the apartment while mom is hanging out with Taylor Swift in Fargo. She'll be leaving around 2 pm for the 2 hour trek & going to 1989 in screaming neon 80's style.

This year my gifts are the Kitty Shack (from tv), a pack of new toys, fresh batteries in the laser, cat grass and of course the usual Fancy Feast tuna. She's staying home all day today and charging up the camera for tomorrow night.

We'll catch up on all the catster birthday love & other things on Tuesday.

After reading that the only automatic box that really keeps working is the expensive litter robot, mom decided to seek out the hooded sifting litter box by Van Ness identical to the non sifting version I'm already comfortable with. She happened to find it at Wal-mart today on the shelf for just under $25 and bought another box of light weight Fresh Step litter. This makes more sense to both of us instead of spending more on the sifting liners that I'm not so sure about.

When the liners are gone she'll put litter in it for me, replace the old box with it in the same spot and sift 2 - 3 times a week and dump the clumps in the litter genie for disposal. She'll clean up the other box with Dawn dish soap & water and will decide what to do with that one after the switch.

She also got me a 36 pack of canned Sheba food with a free pouch of treats included. She can't find canned Fancy Feast in anything bigger than 24 or 30 packs.

Mom is happier now that she can sift the litter instead of digging with the scoop.

Mom has been online and there are plenty of helpful tips on getting us cats used to a litter box but not liners, so we're going to share what we're doing for me.

She originally tried putting them in the regular covered box after cleaning it and changing the air filter, but I didn't go in. Not wanting to face a vet bill, this is what we're doing now.

I have a spare litter tray so she removed the liners from the regular box & dumped the litter back in without, put the liners on the spare box with a little bit of litter so I can get used to burying it into them. I am front declawed so only concern are the back feet.

She will dump the litter onto the sifting liners from the covered box to clean it without scooping, then pour it back into the box until there are only a couple sifting liners left.

When there aren't many left she will try to put them back in the closed box after I'm more used to them. If I still won't go in she's giving up.

Instead of buying more liners she will invest in the sifting box exactly like the litter box I use all the time, and will make it as normal as possible so I will take to it better than the liners thus far. It has to fit through the skinny closet door frame.

Aside from the filthy litter box I really put mom to work with more throw up on the living room carpet.

She did her best at clean it out but with the rain & cool weather she stayed inside & went through a few litter box cleaning wipes. She got it almost clean except a few caked on spots so just put the liners over that. She also cleaned the hood to the box & replaced the air filter, and dumped the old litter in the trash to put in all fresh clumping Fresh Step litter in over the sifting liners which is the only change to the box I already had. The hood is back on it and now the stink is gone.

The box just fits through the tiny door frame so definitely can't get anything bigger in width.

On a future fair weather day (no rain, almost no wind) she'll take the box out & give it a good scrub with regular Dawn.

Now I don't have to meow at her to clean the box. She's hoping I'll get used to the liners since everything else is normal about it. She has yet to take 1 liner out that sifts it but will see if it's any better than scooping within a couple days after I make a couple deposits.